BERLIN — Exit polls showed Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party suffering heavy losses in two German state elections on Sunday, increasing pressure on a leader who has struggled to deliver on promises to revive Europe’s biggest economy and curb the ascent of the far-right AfD party.
Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union is projected to fall to 5.5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a largely rural state in Germany’s formerly communist east. That would be its worst result there since World War II.
In Berlin, the CDU is projected to come in second with 20%, behind the Left party at 24.5%, according to the exit poll by public broadcaster ARD.
The anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany party made significant gains in both elections Sunday. The vote came two weeks after AfD finished just short of a majority in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, and has its best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II.
Merz’s authority was severely damaged by his party’s stinging defeat in the Sept. 6 election by AfD — a result that shocked many Germans who had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.
Merz, 70, became Germany’s leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years, but has failed to lift a sullen national mood and has himself become deeply unpopular.
The strong showing of AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt election has further weakened the chancellor’s standing on the national level, and in the last two weeks there have been calls even within his own party to replace him as chancellor. No top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many have warned against “personnel debates.”
Apparently anticipating a tough postelection period, Merz abandoned a planned trip to New York this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Despite the strong headwinds, he has repeatedly said he’s determined to stay on and finish his term as chancellor.
Grieshaber writes for the Associated Press.
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